Defensive stocks are supposed to hold up in a downdraft. These ones won't.

Walmart (WMT)

That might seem like a cheap shot if you think Walmart isn’t to blame for Black Friday insanity. But the company really is to blame. What happened is unacceptable, and it has happened so many times before that management should have implemented a crisis PR long ago, along with strict security guidelines. Right there, that tells me that management has a problem. If that’s what happens on Black Friday, what else is happening behind the scenes?

The rest of the picture doesn’t look much better. The company’s growth has stalled out. Stores are reported to be a mess in certain areas. Why should I believe that there isn’t massive downside to a stock that is trading at 16x estimates on a mere 3% earnings growth, and has a number of systemic problems? That doesn’t sound very defensive to me.

The best defense with all of these stock is a good offense — sell now.

As of this writing, Lawrence Meyers did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.